Diane Kruger - Vogue Unique, March 2009 Photo by Mark Seliger

Alexander Payne - L'Uomo Vogue, February 2012 Photo by Lauren Dukoff

The jury assembled to judge the competing works at the coming Cannes Film Festival (16-27 May) stands out for its style, as well as its artistic creativity and human insight.

Presiding is Italy’s Nanni Moretti, whose films have highlighted his small obsessions (likes shoes in Bianca and the Vespa in Dear Diary) and have become inter-generational cult classics. The other names on the panel, announced by the Festival after the anticipation of recent days, include the multi-faceted French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who has re-launched classic garments like the corset with his rock’n’roll spirit and desire to shock.

Gaultier has worked not only in fashion, but also in cinema (he created Milla Jovovich’s legendary futuristic costume for Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element and Elena Anaya’s artificial skin for Pedro Almodόvar’s The Skin I Live In) and music (with Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Marilyn Manson and many others).

There’s also the dancer and former German model Diane Kruger. With her icy beauty and innate elegance, she played Helen in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy alongside Brad Pitt, but she’s also appeared as a spy in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and more recently as Marie-Antoniette in Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen.

On the jury as well is the Palestinian actress Hiam Abbas. With her proud Arab face and magnetic allure, she is undoubtedly one of the most interesting actresses over the age of 50. Her “cinematographic intelligence” emerges from the list of films she’s appeared in – she made her cinema debut after working for many years in the theatre. They include Raja Amari’s Satin Rouge, The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree, as well as Amos Gitai’s Free Zone, Steven Spielberg’s Munich and many others.

The other iconic actors on the jury are Emanuelle Devos, Arnaud Desplechin’s French muse, and Ewan McGregor, with his irresistible Scottish charm and a huge number of films behind him. There are three directors as well: the British Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights), the American Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants) and the Haitian Raoul Peck (Lumumba, Sometimes in April, Moloch Tropical).